Alpha Photography Blog

I was just reading through an issue of Digital Photo magazine and what really struck me (apart from the really good articles) was the number of retailers and courses on offer.

Photography used to be part of that “higher” realm of art that was not attainable by many.  The equipment required, studio lighting and film developing practices made it a very specialised skill that took hours and hours, and thousands of dollars to achieve.

Nowadays, photography studios are popping all over the place.  Despite the fact the world economy is  still in a state of upheaval, in the area that I live, 3 new photography studios have opened in the last 8 months.  It’s pretty amazing really.  There must be the demand for it.  Maybe there’s a connection between the population increase and the number of portrait studios around

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This used to be a more complicated question that it is nowadays.  I remember the “good ole days”, when you had to make a choice based on the kind of film loaded in the camera - colour, or black and white.

These days it’s so easy - you don’t have to choose.  You can just take the photo in colour with a digital camera, then convert it to black and white with a few keystrokes in a photo editing program, such as Photoshop.

It is fun to play around with both, especially when photographing in-animate objects…

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Photographing at night can be tricky.  A tripod is a necessity.  What about everything you’ve heard about dusk and dawn, and how they are the best times of day to photograph?  Well, for stunning skies and natural colours, yes they are the best.

But, if you want to really show off unnatural light, especially from the centre of a city, then nighttime is the time.

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Understanding natural light is a huge part of photography.  I remember when I was doing my training, one of the assignments was to set up your camera on a tripod and photograph a sunset at 10 minute intervals.  That worked in summer, but in winter, the sun in Queensland moves very quickly.

Here is the progression of the sun rising - each photo was taken about 1 minute apart…

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One of the keys to good photographic composition is framing, whether it be for portraits or landscapes.  For portraits it can be more easily ‘manufactured’, but for landscapes, you need to place yourself in a position where you can frame the shot with what’s nearby.

Here is a photo I took at sunset from Binna Burra Mountain Lodge in the Gold Coast Hinterland.  The ‘frame’ also blends into the foreground, but with the sun setting in the distance, it provides an interesting effect.

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When the daily grind kicks in, it’s sometimes difficult to get motivated to go out on a “field trip” and take photos.  Especially when you’ve sought out most of the different places around your area and the rest just blend into the wallpaper.

I recently found an article, which gives you some great tips about getting out of the rut…

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How do animals know how to look incredibly cute, and add a touch of ‘how could you ever leave me at home alone?’, to their expressions?

I have a dog who is particularly good at this, so felt compelled to share a few proud happy snaps of Mirabell - a 5 year old poodle, who really knows how to pile on the cute.

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Coming into summer (in the Southern Hemisphere), we’re up for some pretty fabulous storms.

We’ve already had a few and I’ve always wanted to take one of those great photos with multiple bolts of lightening.

I’ve been trying for years, and no go.  Can anyone give me some advice?  Also, sending some photos would be great!

When I started taking photography classes, one of the first assignments was to photograph texture. It’s an interesting ’subject’, as texture is usually associated with touch. There are all sorts of great texture photos out there. One of my favourites is a photo of rippling sand in the desert at sunset. I’m not sure who the photographer is, but it’s a great photo.

I haven’t consciously photographed texture in years, but was recently inspired. Here is one of a ceiling in a hotel - I loved the way the light came through the design - it’s almost enough to hypnotise…

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This will be a pretty short, non-visual post, as a few weekends ago I fell into the trap of “trusting” my equipment, and then it proceeded to fail, and I missed photographs of an important family event!

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